A couple of days ago, Iran issued an arrest warrant for Donald Trump, alleging that he is responsible for murder and terrorism in connection with the drone strike that killed General Qassem Soleimani last January. Practical problems aside -- Interpol has already refused to issue a Red Notice for Trump's arrest -- there is an important legal barrier to prosecuting Trump:...
Along with 187 other American lawyers and legal scholars, I have signed a statement condemning the Trump administration's Executive Order permitting the US to sanction individuals involved with the ICC's investigation into the situation in Afghanistan. It's quite a list of signatories, including three former US war-crimes ambassadors and a number of former judges and prosecutors at various international criminal...
I want to call readers' attention to an upcoming Opinio Juris symposium that is being organized by two fantastic young critical international law scholars, Mohsen al Attar (Warwick) and Rohini Sen (O.P. Jindal). They are looking for a few more contributions, per the Call for Papers -- really a Call for Posts -- below. Note that they would like to...
There is nothing more rewarding for an academic -- at least for this academic -- than seeing a student go on to do great things. I've been fortunate to have many wonderful students over the years, but there is no one I am more proud of than Golriz Ghahraman, whom I taught at the University of Auckland long ago and...
Along with 271 of my fellow public international law scholars, I have signed the following open letter condemning Israel's plan to illegally annex large swathes of the West Bank. If you are interested in joining the list, please send an email with your name and affiliation to annexationletter@gmail.com before July 1. I will update this post with new names every...
We have removed the post to avoid duplication. To see Wumi Asubiaro-Dada's response to Richard Wilson's post about Affective Justice, please see Medium here. ...
ATLAS is the premier organization working to promote the careers of women in international law. So they need to be taken seriously they write an open letter on behalf of more than 7,400 women international lawyers demanding a robust process for addressing sexual misconduct claims against candidates for the next Prosecutor of the ICC. Here is the opening paragraph of...
Dhruv Sharma responded today at Justice in Conflict to my recent post arguing that the next ICC Prosecutor should come from the P-3. I wasn't planning on responding, because the post generally caricatures what I wrote. But I have to say something about one of Sharma's arguments that is particularly mistaken and dangerous. Here is what he writes after noting...
This has been an exceptional symposium, so it's difficult to know what to add. As many of the contributors have noted, the next Prosecutor, whoever she is, has to be a jack-of-all-trades: a skilled lawyer, so she can oversee effective investigations and prosecutions; a talented administrator, so she can herd the hundreds of cats that populate her office; and a...
My colleagues and I really like the name of our blog. And so, apparently, do others! A new Italian blog has just started that also calls itself Opinio Juris. It appears to cover issues of international law and politics as well, which makes its name more than a little frustrating. You'd think the blog could have chosen a different name,...
I wanted to wait a few days to write this post, because in almost every respect I wholeheartedly endorse the Appeals Chamber's recent decision in the Afghanistan situation. The AC corrected fundamental legal errors by the Pre-Trial Chamber concerning the scope of the authorized investigation and the required nexus for war crimes. And, of course, the AC reaffirmed in no...
Last Thursday, Pre-Trial Chamber I issued its decision concerning which states, individuals ,and organizations will be permitted to submit observations on the OTP's request for a jurisdictional ruling in the Palestine situation. The PTC granted leave to 43 of the 45 potential amicus curiae. It denied one request (para. 52) because the individual who submitted it did so on behalf...